United States Drug Enforcement Administration

Thank you and good morning. Thank you to ONDCP and to all the federal partners with whom we have been working on this important issue. This is a critical moment in our country. DEA’s mission is to keep American communities safe and healthy and we are in the midst of...

NORFOLK, Va. – Today, a Richmond man was the sixth and final defendant to be sentenced for his role in a multi-state anabolic steroid conspiracy that operated across the country. According to court documents, Clyde Edward Peele, 46, is one of six members of a trafficking network, led by Michael...

NORFOLK, Va. – A Portsmouth man, who was the 25th defendant associated with Operation High Tide, was sentenced today for his role in trafficking firearms and selling heroin. According to court documents, in 2017, Shon E. Melton, 32, of Portsmouth, was attributed with trafficking 19 firearms, including a concealable short...

Newark, N.J. – Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a Public Safety Alert warning Americans of the alarming increase in the lethality and availability of fake prescription pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine. DEA’s Public Safety Alert, the first in six years, seeks to raise public awareness of a significant nationwide...

Baltimore, Md., – U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar sentenced Jerold Gilliam, age 40, of Baltimore, Maryland to nine years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracy to distribute a substance containing fentanyl and possession with the intent to distribute a substance containing fentanyl. The...

ALEXANDRIA, Va., – A Georgia man pleaded guilty yesterday to distributing illicit prescription drugs over the Darknet and shipping them across the country via the U.S Postal Service. According to court documents, from around April 2020 through October 2020, Cullen Roberts, 23, of Duluth, Georgia, used the moniker “Pillpusher” to...

ABINGDON, Va., – A Dobson, North Carolina man pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to distribute medically illegitimate prescriptions for Schedule II opioids and Suboxone, as well as conspiring to use, in the course of the distribution of controlled substances, the DEA registration number of another person. According to court documents...

Washington, D.C. – Jarod Forget, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the DEA Washington Division, is alerting all area residents to an increase in drug overdose deaths tied to counterfeit pills containing the powerful synthetic opioid, fentanyl. Manufactured by Mexican drug trafficking organizations, and marketed as a medication such as...

HARRISONBURG, Va. – A Winchester woman pleaded guilty today to distributing acetyl fentanyl and fentanyl. According to court documents, Jennifer Lynn Heishman, 37, of Winchester, Virginia, contacted an individual on February 23, 2019, to arrange a purchase of heroin. Later that evening, Heishman paid $100 for two foil packets of...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – A husband and wife from Fairfax and their cousin from Spotsylvania were indicted last month for conspiring to distribute controlled substances in Virginia. According to court documents, Fahid Rashid, 30, Akhter Ahmed, 28, and Khalisah Khan, 29, conspired to traffic counterfeit pills containing fentanyl. The defendants, and...